Brian Cullen |
Story
Worthington Park Awards Scarecrows The Quilcene community gathered at Worthington Park the last week of October to celebrate the fall spirit in a unique display of artful fun. This year’s third annual Scarecrow Contest provided a much needed morale boost for friends and neighbors alike as they assembled twice the number of scarecrow entries from years past. The 18 entries came from all parts of Quilcene and sported a colorful range of costumes and characters. For the first time and to comply with COVID-19 guidelines, participants registered on-line and the community voted for their favorites posted on the Worthington Park website, worthingtonparkquilcene.org.
2nd Place Winner | photo: Jeff Childs
The contest was so popular that it brought traffic on Columbia Street to a halt with on-lookers in cars inching along to get a good look. Local students could be seen hanging out of car windows declaring, "Look! That's my scarecrow!" The vote count was historic - surging to over 800 by the night before the vote! While all of the entries were exceptional there were a few that garnered the highest numbers of community votes. Our 1st place winners were Crystal Manly and Jennifer Tirao. These ladies work hard every day at feeding the students of the Quilcene School District (QSD), serving-up breakfasts and lunches with a smile. They have worked tirelessly to overcome the challenges the pandemic has posed to their meal delivery efforts; delivering to our students in the school building as well as coordinating, preparing and transporting meals to remote learning students. Their tribute to the school district’s newly retired, Veda Wilson, the face of the scarecrow,“Veda-Crow,” was a crowd favorite. Their entry celebrated Veda’s contributions to the school, as well as the hard work that Crystal and Jennifer having been doing for QSD’s students. FJORD
1st Place Winner | photo: Jeff Childs
3rd Place Winner | photo: Jeff Childs
The 2nd place winner belonged to PEARL (Partnership for Excellence in Alternative Remote Learning) student Claire Reinertsen and her mom Lauren Reinertsen. Claire was the creative genius behind the “Man Eating Dragon Chasing Prince,” with a little help from mom. Claire said the secret to a good scarecrow is that “It has to be scary. It has to chase the crows away.” In the race for 3rd place, Mia Mann’s Third Grade class prevailed with their whimsical “Purple Fairy.”
The newly restored Hamilton-Worthington House was transformed into the perfect haunted house. The mansion became a showcase for local Halloween creations with Quilcene's First Grade class creating adorable paper scarecrow window décor for the mansion windows (in addition to their class scarecrow entry). The preschool kids made ghosts for the mansion’s third floor windows. They had a spooky good time!
30
Plans are already afoot for next year’s contest - and it’s never too early to start designing your scarecrow entry!
